{"id":57404,"date":"2015-05-04T12:00:34","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T11:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=57404"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:24:42","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:24:42","slug":"what-makes-a-hero-joseph-campbells-seminal-monomyth-model-for-the-eleven-stages-of-the-heros-journey-animated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/05\/what-makes-a-hero-joseph-campbells-seminal-monomyth-model-for-the-eleven-stages-of-the-heros-journey-animated\/","title":{"rendered":"What Makes a Hero: Joseph Campbell\u2019s Seminal Monomyth Model for the Eleven Stages of the Hero\u2019s Journey, Animated"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>\u201cIt has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/joseph-campbell_hero.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-57405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/joseph-campbell_hero-197x300.jpg\" alt=\"joseph campbell_hero\" width=\"170\" height=\"258\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/joseph-campbell_hero-197x300.jpg 197w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/joseph-campbell_hero.jpg 329w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 170px) 100vw, 170px\" \/><\/a>Nearly four decades before <strong>Joseph Campbell<\/strong> (March 26, 1904\u2013October 30, 1987) refined his enduring ideas on <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.brainpickings.org\/2015\/04\/09\/find-your-bliss-joseph-campbell-power-of-myth\/\" >how to find your bliss and have fulfilling life<\/a>, the legendary mythologist penned <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.es\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1577315936\/braipick03-21\" ><em>The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/em><\/a> (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/title\/hero-with-a-thousand-faces\/oclc\/2972015&amp;referer=brief_results\" ><em>public library<\/em><\/a>) \u2014 his seminal theory outlining the common journey of the archetypal hero across a wealth of ancient myths from around the world. Campbell\u2019s <em>monomyth<\/em> model has since been applied to everything from the lives of great artists to pop-culture classics like <em>Star Wars<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>This wonderful short animation from <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/ed.ted.com\/lessons\/what-makes-a-hero-matthew-winkler\" >TED Ed<\/a> presents a synthesis of Campbell\u2019s foundational framework for the eleven stages of the hero\u2019s quest \u2014 from the call to adventure to the crisis to the moment of return and transformation \u2014 illustrating its timeless potency in illuminating the inner workings of so many of our modern myths and the real-life heroes we\u2019ve come to worship:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What makes a hero? - Matthew Winkler\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Hhk4N9A0oCA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>But perhaps Campbell\u2019s most important and enduring point from the book has to do not with the mechanics of the hero\u2019s journey but with the very purpose of hero-myths in human life. He writes in the opening chapter:<\/p>\n<p><em>It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward, in counteraction to those that tend to tie it back. In fact, it may very well be that the very high incidence of neuroticism among ourselves follows the decline among us of such effective spiritual aid.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>[\u2026]<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The first work of the hero is to retreat from the world scene of secondary effects to those causal zones of the psyche where the difficulties really reside, and there to clarify the difficulties, eradicate them in his own case (i.e., give battle to the nursery demons of his local culture) and break through to the undistorted, direct experience and assimilation of what [Carl] Jung called \u201cthe archetypal images.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Complement <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.es\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1577315936\/braipick03-21\" ><strong><em>The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/em><\/strong><\/a> with pioneering anthropologist Margaret Mead on <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.brainpickings.org\/2015\/03\/26\/margaret-mead-james-baldwin-a-rap-on-race-2\/\" >the role of \u201cmythic ancestors\u201d in how we form our identity<\/a>, then revisit Campbell on <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.brainpickings.org\/2015\/04\/09\/find-your-bliss-joseph-campbell-power-of-myth\/\" >how to find your bliss<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>_______________________________<\/p>\n<p><em>Brain Pickings<\/em><em> is the brain child of Maria Popova, an interestingness hunter-gatherer and curious mind at large obsessed with combinatorial creativity who also writes for <\/em><em>Wired<\/em><em> UK and <\/em><em>The Atlantic<\/em><em>, among others, and is an MIT Futures of Entertainment Fellow. She has gotten occasional help from a handful of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.brainpickings.org\/index.php\/about\/authors\/\" >guest contributors<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.brainpickings.org\/2015\/04\/28\/what-makes-a-hero-joseph-campbell-monomyth\/?mc_cid=8eacedb40c&amp;mc_eid=f209d58223\" >Go to Original \u2013 brainpickings.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIt has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[208],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}